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Abstract

Africa lags well behind other developing
regions in infrastructure access. The limited gains of the
1990s have not increased much in the 2000s. There is clear
evidence that many countries are failing to expand services
fast enough to keep ahead of rapid demographic growth and
even faster urbanization. As a result, if present trends
continue, Africa is likely to lag even further behind other
developing regions, and universal access will be more than
50 years away in many countries. However, there is variation
in performance across countries, even within the low and
middle income brackets. A significant number of countries
have succeeded in increasing the number of people who have
access to water, electricity, and sanitation, by an annual
average of 5-10 percent. Further investigation is warranted
to explain what determines the superior performance of these countries.